Key components of the Southern Warsaw Bypass

Two major new expressway routes are under construction to the south of Poland’s capital city. Totalling some 20 km in length, they form part of a network of roads that will eventually become the Southern Warsaw Bypass (SWB).

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The project’s main goal is to reduce the traffic burden on Warsaw city centre, by diverting long-distance and local transit vehicles to expressway-class roads. Besides increasing Warsaw’s external communications, the new infrastructure should improve links between metropolitan districts. Beneficiaries of the new infrastructure are road users and residents of the area covered by the project, as well as transit traffic passing through the Mazowieckie region.

The SWB section is the longer of the two new roads, covering some 14.4 km. It comprises the S2 expressway south-east of the city and runs from the planned Konotopa junction, which will connect this project with the A2 motorway and the AK route (S8), to the Puławska junction due south of Warsaw.

The second expressway, the N-S route or S79, runs in a north-south direction on the western fringe of Warsaw Chopin Airport. Its construction focuses on the section between the Marynarska and Lotnisko junctions over a distance of around 5.5 km. In addition, the overall project includes reconstruction of national roads over some 1.3 km.

State-of-the art infrastructure

The SWB route is an expressway-class, dual-carriageway with three lanes and a planned speed limit of 100 km/h, or 80 km/h around the Puławska junction. The N-S route is designed as an expressway-class urban road, featuring two carriageways of three lanes and a planned speed limit of 80 km/h.

Various engineering structures are intended under both routes, such as junctions, viaducts and slip roads. These are in addition to infrastructure for the project's operation plus environmental protection features and road safety facilities. Other associated facilities are planned to be upgraded.

The complete SWB and N-S routes enhance the integration of the Warsaw suburbs with national and regional connections, stimulating the development of new metropolitan functions for the city of Warsaw. The roads also bring international benefits, as the project is located on a pan-European transport corridor (TEN-T) running from Berlin via Poznań to Warsaw and on to Moscow.

Total investment and EU funding

Total investment for the project “Construction of the S2 expressway from the Konotopa junction to the Puławska junction, together with the S79 section from the Airport junction to the Marynarska junction” is EUR 955 883 619, with the EU’s Cohesion Fund contributing EUR 502 059 750 through the “Infrastructure and Environment” Operational Programme for the 2007-2013 programming period, under the "TEN-T road and air transport network" priority.